“We can say, at this point, no charges may be filed,” Johns said. “Sources have told CNN criminal charges are not likely, but we’ve got no indication the investigation is over.”

“This news may sound surprising but making a criminal case out of IRS targeting was always a stretch, according to legal experts,” Johns continued. “They look for false statements or perjury, but those charges only stick if someone is found to have intentionally lied to investigators or under oath. They could’ve looked at alleged violation of civil rights or discriminatory conduct, but then you have to show only conservative groups were targeted. it’s pretty clear some progressive groups were targeted as well.”

Johns concluded by noting that “there are people on Capitol Hill who were outraged and have been demanding charges. We’re not likely to have heard the end of this,Carol.”

Indeed, Issa noted in an interview with Fox News, last week, that “this administration has taken a lot of time – sent false statements repeatedly through intermediaries – that somehow this targeting went beyond conservatives, when in fact, the facts keep coming back that this was a one sided attempt to stop the people on the opposite side of Obama’s re-elect.”

You can add CNN and Mediaite to the “intermediaries” willing to uncritically accept the Regime’s false talking points on this.

Today, Issa blasted “what he called a questionable U.S. criminal investigation into the screening of Tea Party groups by the Internal Revenue Service, saying that anonymous leaks had harmed the inquiry.”

“These revelations further undermine the credibility of the Attorney General Holder and the Justice Department under his leadership,” Issa and Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said in a statement released late Monday night. “Given the circumstances, there is little reason for the American people to have confidence in this investigation.

“Anonymous — and apparently politically motivated — leaks from unnamed law enforcement officials further undermine the public assurances by the current and former FBI directors that this is a legitimate investigation. These leaks come after the Justice Department, citing the confidential nature of the investigation, refused to brief Congress on its progress and congressional investigators independently discovered that a high dollar contributor to the Obama Administration failed to recuse herself,” Issa and Jordan wrote in the letter.

The IRS said in May that it had given extra scrutiny to Tea Party groups applying for nonprofit status, unleashing a scandal that led to the ouster of the agency’s acting chief and several other senior officials.

Congressional committees, including the House Oversight panel led by Issa, have begun investigations and the Justice Department has been conducting a criminal probe.

Issa was responding to a report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation didn’t plan to seek charges.

Spokesmen with the Justice Department and the FBI either declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comment.